Mom with only one arm: 'People stare and that's OK, I embrace my different'

Ashely Fisher, 22, lost her arm but that doesn’t stop her from living her best life. (Photo: Instagram/Ashley Fisher)

Ashley Fisher is a college student, YouTube video blogger, and mom to an adorable 4-year-old girl. Fisher lost her arm in a car accident when she was a toddler, but she doesn’t allow her disability to stop her from living her best life.

The 22-year-old has an Instagram following of over 80,000. She consistently shares photos of her fierce fashion sense and beautiful daughter Abigail.

In her YouTube videos, Fisher shares with her followers her inspirational story. From her day-to-day videos on how she dresses her daughter, Abigail, to opening up about how she lost her arm, the mom doesn’t hold back on sharing her struggles and victories.

“I don’t really remember what happened,” she said in a vlog recalling the incident that took her left arm. “I don’t remember myself ever having two arms.”

At just 1-year-old, Fisher fell out of a moving car. In the hospital, the doctor wasn’t able to operate and save her arm. “It’s pretty tragic,” she shared. However, she added that “it doesn’t bother me to talk about it.”

The North Carolina mom said it took her a while to learn how to adapt to society’s beauty standards. She opened up about being bullied when she was in school for looking different. “Little kids can be mean, but they’re just being kids,” she said. “When I was younger, I used to think ‘people should understand that I’m just like them, I just have one arm.'”

Fisher said she grew up and understood that people might stare because it’s not often that they come across people who are different.

“I’ve made it this far, and I am fine,” she said.

She appears to be doing more than just “fine.” Fisher is finishing up her senior year at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. She was recently crowned as “Miss America Society of Landscape Architects” at her college’s homecoming.

One of her followers commented on the photo, “Beautiful lady.” Another one wrote, “you’re an inspiration.”